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DuJuan Harris has had plenty of time to catch up on football since undergoing knee surgery on Sept. 5 that will sideline him for the entire 2013 season.

So what does the 5-foot-7, 203-pound running back see when he looks at the Green Bay Packers' backfield? A unit that’s living up to his lofty preseason expectations.

“I feel like we have the best backfield in this league by the numbers,” said Harris, who finished the 2012 season as the Packers’ starter. “We have a lot of guys that can take over the starting job and get out there and make some runs. The guys who yall didn’t even think were going to play were the guys who got 100 yard games.

“All of us are capable of having big games and to have all that in the backfield, that’s a hell of a thing to have.”

Harris was referring to veteran James Starks and rookie Johnathan Franklin, who spent most of training camp near the bottom of the depth chart before rushing for more than 100 yards individually in back-to-back weeks.

It wasn't the combination you would've thought of before the season when Packers coach Mike McCarthy seemed to be dedicated in his plan to move forward with Harris and second-round rookie Eddie Lacy as his one-two punch.

Instead, it was Starks and Franklin who became the first duo to rush for 100 yards individually since Ryan Grant rushed for 100 yards on 14 carries against Oakland on Dec. 23, 2007, before Brandon Jackson had 20 carries for 113 the following week against Detroit.

Harris' take isn't new. The street free agent turned starter has been singing the praises of a running back room that swelled in competition with the addition of Lacy and Franklin through April's NFL draft.

There’s only so much you can read into a NFL sample size that’s three weeks old, but Harris could be on to something as the Packers’ run game has shown improvement in both its blocking and execution.

Through three games, the Packers are averaging 128.0-yards per game, which is good enough for 10th in the NFL, and is a sizable increase over their 78.3 average running behind 30-year-old back Cedric Benson at this time last season.

The Packers were without Lacy (concussion) and John Kuhn (hamstring) out in Sunday’s 34-30 loss to Cincinnati and had both Starks (knee) and Franklin (toe) go down with injuries, but Harris believes the backfield still is in for big things.

Whoever lines up in the backfield, he has confidence they’ll keep making the chains. Just like the offense did when he succumbed to his season-ending knee injury in last month's third preseason game against Seattle.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Harris, who's no longer using crutches. “I knew from the start we were going to have a great running game. People probably thought otherwise but I actually see our hard work every day and how much it means to us, and how all of us getting along. We didn’t really let the outside stuff get to us. We always knew it was going to be a strong running game.

“Even though we’re all down and everything, it’s still going to keep up.”